It’s tough to find a style of beer more polarizing than, well, any beer with pumpkin in it. Brewers and beer lovers alike either love pumpkin beers or hate them, and neither side will spare you the details about why they feel that way.

One group thinks pumpkin beers are too trendy, another incarnation of the annual pumpkin-spicing of America. In fact, some breweries even use the social media hashtag #SayNoToPumpkinBeer (which they feature in marketing for their alternative autumn beer they hope you will buy instead). Others simply don’t like the flavor of pumpkin or pumpkin spice. Ironically, that same fall tradition of celebrating pumpkins, harvest, and warm spices is the exact reason others love the style.

Some pumpkin beers rely totally on pumpkin spice, others feature only pumpkin flesh, and there are plenty of examples in between. No matter how you feel about them, pumpkin beers are at the peak of their yearly bloom, and many of our local breweries have at least one on tap. Here’s how three area brewers accepted the challenge:

Steam Plant Brewing Co.—Two Takes on Pumpkin

If you want to try two different styles of pumpkin beer made by the same hands, compare brewer Ben Quick’s pumpkin spice blonde ale and his heirloom pumpkin amber ale at Steam Plant Brewing Company in downtown Spokane.

The pumpkin spice blonde is dry and lightly spiced, featuring a blend of spices instead of pumpkin flesh. Ben says people who prefer light beers are often attracted to this one.

For the amber ale version, Ben uses Long Island Cheese heirloom pumpkins grown by Dan Jackson of Spokane Valley’s LINC Foods. Ben and the Steam Plant chefs clean and roast the pumpkins to caramelize the sugars, which he says complements the caramel flavors of the malt.

“That way we get a caramel flavor from both the pumpkin and the malt,” says Ben. “They really go well together.”

You can find both versions on tap at the Steam Plant’s classic basement pub or with dinner upstairs at Stacks. But don’t wait too long to try these two—or any of the local pumpkin beers—because they usually sell out before Christmastime.

Big Barn Brewing’s Golden Pumpkin Ale
The crew at Big Barn Brewing Company strives to grow as many ingredients as possible on-site at their Green Bluff farm-brewery, and their golden pumpkin ale is a hearty demonstration of those efforts. Brad Paulson, and Craig, Jane and son Eli Deitz grow their own pumpkins and hops 20 paces from the brewery door. At harvest time, they walk outside and pick what they need.

Lightly hopped to about 10 IBU (International Bitterness Units), the pumpkin is the star of this beer. After harvest, the gourds are brought inside the brewery to be cleaned, the flesh and seeds are roasted until the natural sugars caramelize, then the brewers add it all to the mash. Early batches feature orange pie pumpkins, while subsequent brews are made with ruby-orange Cinderella pumpkins as they ripen.

“The pumpkin adds some sugar content to the grist bill, but it also imparts a little bit of flavor, a little bit of body, and color,” says Craig.

You can find the beer in bottles around town or on tap at the brewery while you enjoy a pint overlooking the fields where the pumpkins and hops were grown.

Hopped Up Brewing’s Pumpkin Porter

Steve Ewan of Hopped Up Brewing Company makes his pumpkin porter with a custom blend of clove, allspice, nutmeg, a pinch of cinnamon, one last secret spice, and Fuggle hops. He used to make a version with pumpkin flesh as well, but his customers liked this spiced version even more.

“It’s a robust porter—six percent—and it has some Munich malt for some extra caramel,” says Steve. “It’s not sweet, it’s not dry, it’s just a good, well-balanced, malty, lightly spiced pumpkin porter.”

The “lightly-spiced” part is key, says Steve. “You have to be careful with the clove.” Try it on tap at the brewery near Sprague and University in Spokane Valley.